A burning question!
Laboratory tests conducted by the Food Safety Wing of the State Health and Family Welfare Department have found bottled water either misbranded or sub-standard or not safe for human intake.
Since there is no stringent law to deal with such unscrupulous companies, the actions being taken against them are limited to issuing notices, warnings, and ban on their business for a few days.
The Food Safety Wing of the State Health and Family Welfare Department tested 14 samples of bottled water in 2016-17.
While the wing found two samples as misbranded and as many sub-standard ones, five were not safe for human intake.
The labels of such bottles read either packaged drinking water or mineral added to water or purified water.
Sources further say that a large number of bottles of packaged water of diverse brands are sold daily in Assam.
It is not possible to check each and every bottle of all the brands, and as such food safety officials have to go for random checking.
An official said: “We take action as and when we receive complaints from the public.
We’re going to take stringent action against three companies.